swellsome

Crafter to Keep a Close Eye On

Super duper nest pins

About a year ago, when I first started feeling unsettled in my job, I started paying a lot more attention to Etsy and the community there. I found myself popping into the forums, listing items in our Etsy shop on an almost daily basis and I became obsessed with Treasury’s.

Somehow in all of that I came across a shop called made In Lowell. Now Lowell is a town in Massachusetts not to far from where we used to live and I was curious as to who owned it. Even a year ago Etsy is not what it is now, and I was excited to find another some what local artist.

That is how I met Liz. She is the amazing talent behind Made In Lowell and she is not just an amazing artist, but an amazing person. Truthfully, she helped me make one of the biggest decisions of my life, even though she doesn’t know it.

Liz and I started emailing, a boy howdy, we sent really long emails to each other! I was getting up at 5am just to write to her. I found her so easy to talk to, and the kinds of things we talked about were the kinds of things I don’t see to talk about with my friends I see on a daily basis.

We also have a lot of things in common. We collect a lot of the same things, including paint-by-number paintings, and I can tell you – it is hard to find someone who even appreciates paint-by-numbers let alone collects them!

Liz made me the earrings I wore in my wedding and they were not only beautiful, but the only other pair of earrings I have worn in the past five years or so. She gave us an amazing egg for a wedding gift and most recently she sent me a lovely nest broach. I wore another felted broach she made me at my bridal shower. I also sent cards and notes to people on cards she has sent me… made from her Mother’s paintings. Also, Liz’s husband is a writer. Her whole family is loaded with talent!

Earrings I wore in my wedding

                                                                     Hand felted broach I wear all the time

Basically I can’t say enough good things about Liz and the quality of her work. Even though I never told her, all those emails we sent to one another gave me the courage to leave my full time career job and try something new in a totally different field. Thank you Liz.

I would encourage you to buy something from her. Her items would make excellent final touch to a spring or Easter outfit and obviously her stuff is perfect for wedding related functions – and you should think of her shop when you begin scouting for a Mother’s Day gift.

Wouldn't this egg look lovely on your Easter tree?

Resources:
Made in Lowell - Liz's Etsy Shop

Mill Girl – Liz’s blog

Made In Lowell – Flickr Account

All photo credits go to Liz, Made In Lowell

Let's start again

Hi there. I had the idea for this blog and then I started this blog and then life got in the way and the I felt to lazy to start up again and then when I wanted to start up again, I didn’t know how.

Here I am.

This is my blog about life and design and crafting and I’m just going to go for it. I hope you’ll join me.

Talkin' Turkey*

Some of you may be thinking about Thanksgiving, seeing as how it is November 20^th and all.   

Some of you may even have homes with kitchens, unlike me, the sad girl who lives in an attic rectory with a man, two cats and a dog. Some of you probably do not eat cereal for all of your meals because your living spaces come equipped with things like stove tops and ovens.   

I should start off by saying that I am not bitter. I am just pointing out some facts about what makes your lovely Thanksgiving holiday, which is most likely going to be filled with friends and families and hot food, different from my Thanksgiving, which is going to include room service and then a long day in the shop turning it over for Christmas.   

While you are eating turkey, I’ll be praying that the Cumberland Farms convenience store is open so that I might partake in a Ho-Ho and a Diet Coke. Pretty much I’ll be giving thanks for other people who work on holidays, because even though I’m not bitter – I am a firm believer that misery, especially mine, loves good company. Or any company.   

Makin' Mittens from 2005

I am super short on time, yet super committed to posting a lot. So in lieu of a new post and since I don't have any readers yet anyhow, (except for you Minna and Eric!) I am bringing the following post over from my personal blog. I hope you enjoy it. After all, it is mitten season.

My Day Job

This is a photo of one of the chandeliers we sell. They are all hand made by a woman owned company and are created with true venetian glass.

Since we’re still in the beginning here and my work has been crazy, I thought I’d share more about what I do.

   

The store I buy for and manage is called Fuchsia Home. We are located in a beautiful old building in th
village of Lenox, in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. (How long will I live in this state before I can spell it correctly on the first try?!?)   
Anyhow, we are the main shop in the country for Crispina products. The store was opened in 2003 as a place to showcase Crispina Design Workshop textiles and home goods and has since evolved into a cute little home goods boutique.

We sell lots of awesome stuff, if I do say so myself, ahem, and I have never had more fun in my life. This is the first shop I have ever worked in and it has been one big, fantastic learning experience. I work with two great ladies, Laurie, who happens to be an awesome stylist and designer in her own right and Bonnie, a lovely lady with lots of retail experience and a heart of gold. (Um, cheesy much Kari?)    

Anyhow, the three of us work well together and we all like what we do. In my past life I was a publicist and have mostly worked for theaters my whole career. I also used to be a columnist and entertainment writer. When I was offered the chance to work at Fuchsia Home, I jumped on it. I was really ready to try something new – and boy howdy am I glad I did.

The shop in twilight. This photo was taken for Lucky magazine, but they didn't use it. Chumps.

Naturally working in theaters I had lots of opportunities to meet super great people and I traveled a lot and liked what I did, but this is different. I love the customers, I love the buying trips even though they are exhausting. I love rearranging the store. People come in all the time and think everything is new, but that is because Laurie and I are constantly moving it all around.

Fuchsia Home has its own Flickr account and we would love to be a contact of yours. I try to update the photos pretty regularly and so you should check back often.

Pottery by Alyssa Ettinger. I have been lucky enough to meet her and see her studio and not only is she fantastically creative but sweet as pie as well. I heart her.

Rectory Progress

Lately as winter draws nearer and nearer I feel myself getting a bit more nesty. I have the desire to bake, learn to use a crock pot and get out all of our winter clothes and bedding.

Normally this would be no problem.

However, our new home isn’t finished yet.

I told you all earlier that we are living in an attic while we wait for the apartment to be finished. We have no kitchen so that leaves the baking and crock pot parts out and almost everything we own is packed up in boxes, which means cotton sheets and hoodies for us. You see, when we embarked on this adventure, we thought we would only be in the attic for two weeks. It is not almost 3 months later.  To help keep me sane, I thought I’d share a bit more of the fun part of this big process with you.

I have a Rectory Progress set on Flickr. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with the photographing of the progress but sometimes I know while loads of work has been done, it just isn’t visible to my non-builder eye. Josh, our builder will be like, "I drilled a hole in the sub wall, that will allow the air vent pipe from the half bath to vent to the outside. It was 3 and a half inches past the paneling and I used a name-of-big-fancy-tool and goggles but I got it done."

I only understand about half of what he says to me during my daily check-ins so I say things like, is the hole pretty?" and he then will look at me like I'm a nutter. However, Josh is super duper and he tries to connect to me on my level by giving me catalogs and paint samples. He marks things he likes with a star or write things in plain English for me. Things like "THESE ARE FLOOR TYPES" when giving me a catalog on floor samples.

The photos in the set have pretty detailed descriptions of what is happening in each photo, so I won't post it all here - but below is one of my favorite details... curtain rods made from copper tubes that plumbers use. If something can be turned into useful when it isn't need for its intended purpose... well, it just is swellsome.

My Adventure Is About To Begin...

I have been a long time fan of Rob Ryan. I think his paper cuts are out of this world! I was pretty excited when he opened a shop on Etsy, and I wanted to share this tile with you. Not only is it appropriate for my second Swellsome blog post, because really, this is an adventure beginning, but we own this as well.

I ordered it with the intent of having our tile guy randomly placing it in our new shower somewhere. I think it will be really fun to see this everyday as we get ready to go out in the world. If I could have all of his tiles worked into our home I would.

Check out Rob's blog here and his website is a must see.

*Image taken from an email Rob sent me.

Here goes...

No time like the present huh?

I had the idea for Swellsome about three months ago and my original goal was to have it up and running with daily posts for at least two months before telling the public about it - as usual though, fear and laziness got in my way. There are so many wonderful design blogs out there and I can’t help thinking maybe there isn’t room for one more. But then I think about the things I would like to see in a Home/Design/Shopping blog and I have hope.   

So here I go… the first post is always the hardest right? Or was that the first cut is the deepest?

I’ll start with an introduction of myself. Whenever I fall in love with a new blog, I always go back to the beginning and hopefully if that is what you’re doing, this is the kind of thing you were looking for:   

My name is Kari and I live in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts with my adorable husband Eric, our dog Baxter and and two cats, Zoe and NewCat.   

As of this first post we are living in an attic room of a former rectory in a city that has seen better days but that is experiencing an artistic upswing. We are waiting for our cool, green-build apartment to be ready. Hopefully we’ll be able to move in soon because not having a shower (we have a tub only) or a kitchen or an outlet for all of my domestic urges is getting tough.   

I manage a cute home goods store and act as the buyer as well, with lots of input from the shop’s awesome owner. I also work closely with a great woman owned/founded business called Crispina Design Workshop. Check us out at www.crispina.com.   

I really love my job and I figure that the contacts I make and the work I do puts me in touch with some of the most amazing designers, crafters and business people, so why not share what I’m learning? Along the way I hope to also be able to post articles on living. I’m sure I’m not the only person out there who wonders exactly how to use their broiler or how to buy firewood, or what is the best way to rewire a lamp. Am I?   

Basically I get to travel to some really wonderful spots and buy things and I’m going to live in a pretty unique place and I want to share.   

Thanks for checking in.   

XO, 

Kari